I'M IN CAMBODIA!

So, buckle your seat belts guys, this is gonna be a long one! For any of you that don't have time to read the essay I'm about to embark upon... Here's the news in brief...
The Great Scam Bus, Pingu loses his voice, Mozzies 8-8 Ellie, Cocktails and night-markets, Ellie gets a massage from an old blind lady and superglues her fingers together, fruit shakes, cycling in the rain, Travel Top Trumps, Angkor Wat, and more wandering around getting lost!

BANGKOK-SIEM REAP JOURNEY...
So the bus WAS abit of a scam, ended up paying too much, and then having to pay more to get a taxi, but the cambodian border crossing was so confusing and busy we were glad in the end to be guided through safely by our Scam-leader. Here's the journey TOP TRUMP card...
BANGKOK-SIEM REAP via Cambodian Border
Door-to-door Journey time - 9 hours
Scam Factor - 9 (high!)
Stress levels - 8
Heat - 7
General Confusion - 7
Quality of Vehicles - 6 (variable)
Bonus Tie breaker - Time spent waiting at random places - 2 hrs (6)

My advice to travellers trying to complete this journey? TAT's are NOT legit tourist offices, ask around, or FLY!

Anyway we arrived safe and sound in Siem Reap and got to Victory Guest house, which is where Mum lived when she was there. Very warm welcome from Moy and felt immediately at home. She made us the most delicious fruit shakes ever, and we headed out to explore!
First Impressions of Cambodia...
You know that song (or possibley phrase?) that goes "smile and the world will smile with you"? Well... that pretty much sums up the people here. They are SO smiley and friendly. HELLO LADY! They all shout, and often fall about laughing... i guess we look funny, and our attempts at cambodian have been met with great hilarity, but appreciation also. It is HOT. Very very hot. It's hard to imagine Mum here amongst the heat and the dust and the traffic... A note on the traffic - the "green man"to cross the road, is an actually moving figure of someone sprinting - this is good advice! complete madness, but very chilled out attitude to laws, which side you should drive on, motorbikes.... Did you know you can carry ANYTHING on the back of a scooter? Your entire family (including babies and grandparents)? Sure! huge steel gurgers? Why not! 50 live chickens tied by their feet? Hell yeah!
The other noticable thing about Siem Reap is the contrast in wealth. There are dozens of huge, sparkly hotels, right next door to people living in tiny one-roomed huts with their entire families. It's hard to say no to so many needy people, and it gets abit much sometimes, especially round the temples. We explored the night-market and the centre, which is really lovely, but much more commercial and busy than i thought it would be. We went to a charity restaurant that is a giant butterfly house (but they were all sleeping) and I got a Massage from trained blind massueses for charity. It was amazing! It was in this run-down shed-like building that looked like a 3rd-world hospital. I put on these blue pjamas and let the ladt work her magic! She kept tutting - I'm not sure she was very impressed with the state of my back! Oh and we got a fish foot spa too - tickley!

The next day we got up at 4.30am to go and explore the temples of Angkor Wat. We hired bikes and cycled the 4km up there. It was dark, but by the time we arrived at Angkor (which is the main and most famous temple)as it was just getting light. There was me expecting pink and orange sunrise... nope! the sun the rose behind the clouds and it got steadily lighter (and hotter!). But Angkor was beautiful and my favourite temple of the ones we saw that day. It got oppressively hot later, and cycling about became pretty painful. Think we lost pints of sweat that day, we cycled about 20km all together! The tourist groups also shattered my dreams of leaping about like Lara Croft out of Tomb Raider... but the Ta Phrom (?!) temples with all the trees growing out of it was really awesome. They are all just so much bigger than you expect. It really is amazing. We got back about noon and then the monsoon rains came good and proper and we decided to go cycling round in it to cool off, much to the amusement of the locals. And then it was off to the capital Phnom Phen by bus!

SIEM REAP-PHNOM PHEN
Door-to-door journey time - 7 hours
Scam factor - 0
Stress Levels - 3 (roads!)
Heat - 2 (Air-con!)
General Confusion - 2 (minimal)
Quality of Vehicles - 8
BONUS - Cheesy Cambodian Karoke Videos - 8

Brilliant journey compared to the last, and we got straight in a tuktuk who took us to a cheap hotel, which is pretty basic but it's ä bed! We explored Phnom Phen (not much to do really) and went out for some DELICIOUS food by the river and to look around the night-market, which is actually kinda nicer than Siem Reap (Sorry Mum!) Just so much more room to wander about, and we do like to wander!

This morning we went (with our lovely Tuktuk man Long) to the Cheong Ek killing fields and the Tuol Sleng Prison Museum (S-21); the places where 1000s of Cambodians were detained, tortured and murdered in the Khmer Rouge years. There aren't really words to describe it. It's horrendous, and distressing, and i fought back tears many times. I KNEW it would be awful, but there's nothing anyone can say that will really prepare you for it. The things humans are capable of doing to each other... There are lessons to be learnt here, in this amazing country.

We are now waiting for our bus to go to Sihanoukville on the southern coast. 3 days on white sandy beaches and clear seas - Yes Please!

Hope you're all well. Lots of love, El & Nai x

p.s. Yes, Pingu has lost his voice... he was being very vocal (noisy!) so a vote was taken, and it was unaminously decided that surgery should be performed to remove his voice-box (textiles would be proud of the job i did!). He has recovered well and is enjoying himself immensely :)